This story, which preceded the Christmas day airline terrorist scare, has even more gravity now in light of that event.

A drama instructor at the University of California at Davis was arrested [the first week of December] and jailed for several days after some students thought he was going to set off a bomb in class, The Sacramento Bee reported [on 12/10/09].

The instructor, a graduate student in the university’s theater and dance department who taught acting, referred to his students’ end-of-semester instructor evaluations as a "bomb" before throwing the papers on the floor and running out of the classroom, according to a statement issued by the campus police.

"I have a bomb, this is the last time I am ever going to see you," said the instructor, James Marchbanks, according to the statement. "I am going to leave class before the bomb goes off, but you are all going to stay here until it’s done."

What a knucklehead. You can read the rest of the story courtesy of the Chronicle of Higher Ed here and via the Sacramento Bee, here.